Stadium

All that a new Minnesota Vikings stadium needs now is a shovel in the ground. The Minneapolis City Council on Friday voted to approve funding for a football / convention center facility, the final hurdle necessary to building a new downtown home for the Vikings. The final vote was 7-6, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, ending a push for a new stadium that lasted nearly a decade. Minneapolis will subsidize about $309 million of the stadium with the state and the Vikings paying for the rest.

August 11 1984— Dieruff grad Joe Atiyeh, who holds dual citizenship, settles for a silver medal — Syria's first-ever Olympic medal — when he is pinned by Lou Banach in 1:01 in the 100-kilogram freestyle wrestling tournament final in Los Angeles. Atiyeh, who beat Greece's George Pitlidis by injury default in the semifinals after building a 12-7 lead, travels to Syria soon after the Olympics closing ceremonies to be honored by the nation and Syrian president Hafez Assad. August 12 2009— Outfielder Michael Taylor becomes the first IronPig to hit for the cycle, including a game-tying ninth-inning home run, in Lehigh Valley's 10-9, 10-inning International League victory over Louisville at Coca-Cola Park.

Being a lifelong resident of Slatington and a World War II veteran, I never felt so embarrassed for myself and for all those fans of Northern Lehigh School District on the evening of Sept. 4. I attended the football game, as I usually have for many years. For the past several years I noticed that the flag pole at the stadium was old, rusty and leaning, without a spotlight on our American flag. When everyone stood for the national anthem and faced the south end of the stadium on Sept.

Having pitched for Salisbury High School in recent years, Nick Ampietro was quite familiar with the mound at Limeport Stadium, where Southern Lehigh plays its home games and the Colonial League playoffs are held. Ampietro felt comfortable at Limeport, but made sure the host Limeport Bulls were not on Sunday night. The former Falcon and current Moravian College student-athlete tossed a two-hitter and his Northampton team nudged across a run in the top of the seventh to post a 2-1 win and seize a commanding two games-to-none lead in the best-of-five Blue Mountain League Championship Series.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Steelers have filed notice they'll sue the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority over stalled plans to add 3,000 seats to the team's 11-year-old stadium., Heinz Field. The Steelers contend their lease requires the authority to pay about two-thirds of the $38 million the team expects it will cost to add the end zone seats and a new video scoreboard those fans can see. The team thought the authority could raise its share through a $1 ticket surcharge and an extra $2-$3 parking fee — but Alco Parking Co., which operates the stadium lots — has balked at that.

Laugh. Cheer. Oink. These three words have become immensely popular around the area after the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Phillies' Triple-A minor league affiliate, began playing in 2008. People find the IronPigs so entertaining that when they want to have an enjoyable time they can easily go to an IronPigs game. This team has transformed the Allentown area into a baseball mini-metropolis. The establishment of the IronPigs also has brought out a new fan base for the Phillies as more people have seen some players who go through here end up in Philadelphia playing for the major league ballclub.

In one word, putting a sports complex in downtown Allentown is stupid. In Philadelphia, the "new Spectrum" was built next to the other sport event facilities. Wow, what a great idea. The riverfront may not be the correct venue at this time because of the lack of infrastructure and roads, but what about Union Boulevard at the old Western Electric facility? This could share parking with Coca-Cola Park and have the needed road access. A downtown sports complex will do little or nothing for the downtown.

The Bethlehem Area School District's stadium will sadly miss two faithful workers who passed away recently. Pete Aldinger, who worked the gates at almost every indoor and outdoor event at Liberty High School, and Richard "Dick" Edwards, who owned Dick's French Fries. Anyone who has ever attended an event in the stadium can still hear Mr. Llewellyn announce, "Hey fans, who has the best french fries in the stadium -- Dick's French Fries." These two people will truly be missed. Charlotte Zimmerman Bethlehem Township

A worker helps complete the seating in the new football stadium at Lehigh University's Murray H. Goodman campus. University officials say work is on schedule for the $7.25 million, 13,000-seat stadium to open for the Oct. 1 football game against Cornell.

MOOSIC, Pa. (AP) — A groundbreaking ceremony has been held in northeastern Pennsylvania for construction of a new baseball stadium that is home to a minor league team. Lackawanna County officials were joined Monday by representatives of the New York Yankees and Mandalay Baseball Properties for the ceremonial event. The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees are playing their entire schedule on the road this season because of the $43.3 million project. The Scranton Times-Tribune says the rebuilt stadium, which will replace PNC Field, is scheduled to open in April of next year.

Earlier this summer, we wrote about the plight of Coplay's Balliet Stadium and how a group is trying to revitalize of the area's iconic baseball venues. Well, another classic ballpark is in line for an upgrade. A Lights for Limeport fundraising effort has begun with hopes, according to a brochure, of "replacing the existing and rapidly deteriorating lighting system with up-to-date steel structure poles and more powerful but energy-efficient lights. " Limeport Stadium was built in 1932 and lights were added in 1984 through a vast fundraising effort.

The NCAA "rightly" punished Penn State following the Jerry Sandusky scandal, an Irish sports official said. Peter McKenna, director of Croke Park Stadium in Dublin, also told the Irish Times that the scandal was "something that we thought long and hard about" before inviting Penn State to play in the Croke Park Classic. McKenna added that Penn State's response to the scandal, which included the firings of Joe Paterno and former president Graham Spanier, was "emphatic. " "We have a very strong child protection ethos and policy within the [Gaelic Athletic Association]

Lehigh officially began the 2014 season on Thursday night with its first practice. It's a season with a lot of question marks. But one question has definitely been answered. How would playing the 150th meeting between Lehigh and Lafayette on Nov. 22 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx be received? Obviously, very, very well. The game is still more three months away and the tickets are gone. Even some of the people who were in on the ground floor of this decision are surprised by how well this idea has been received.

It was once the mecca of local baseball, hosting games of all varieties throughout the spring and summer. It hosted high school baseball's league and district championship games as well as American Legion state and regional tournaments. For several generations, if you were a quality baseball player in the Lehigh Valley, you played at Coplay's Sammy Balliet Stadium at some point. Curt Simmons played here, as did Dave Schneck, Pat Kelly, Ted Wieand and Brian Schneider en route to big-league careers.

Lehigh and Lafayette will play the 150 t h game of their football rivalry before a Yankee Stadium crowd that could approach 50,000. Lehigh announced Wednesday, 150 days before the game, that it had sold out its allotment of 27,870 tickets for the Nov. 22 game in New York. Lafayette announced in January that it had sold out its ticket allotment, meaning the schools should fill the stadium's 48,100 capacity established for the game. "The response to this milestone game is a real tribute to the Lehigh and Lafayette communities," Lehigh Athletic Director Joe Sterrett said.

A fundraiser car wash will be hosted by the Northwestern Lehigh High School Science Team, 9 a.m.-noon on Saturday, June 21, in the stadium parking lot. All cars will be washed and waxed, according to the school district's website. All proceeds will benefit the team. The stadium is by the high school at 6493 Route 309, New Tripoli. For more information, visit http://www.nwlehighsd.org.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Country singer Toby Keith is planning to put his money where other Pittsburgh Steelers fans' mouths are: In a restaurant near the team's home stadium, Heinz Field. Columbus, Ohio-based Continental Real Estate Cos. says "Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill" will be located in a building planned near the stadium. Keith is known to be a fan of the team. The southern-style sports bar would open in 2014 and feature live entertainment, including up-and-coming country acts.

I read your paper every day. Good job, keep it up! I live in the Bethlehem Area School District. I thought the "swaps" were horrendous, and the entire school board should have been fired, fined and jailed, but I kept quiet. Now the Bethlehem Area School District's Facilities Committee has identified some seriously needed repairs to the stadium and does not know where the money will come from? "The committee made no recommendation but will continue to study the issue as the district budget season progresses.

Penn State football coach James Franklin considers program-branding to be important, so Tuesday's work at Beaver Stadium must have pleased him. Penn State raised a 6,500-pound Nittany Lion Logo atop the South side of Beaver Stadium, continuing a $10 million project that will be in place this fall. The athletic department is installing two new videoboards to replace the 13- and 14-year-old screens at Beaver Stadium. The high-definition videoboards, which are going through testing, are similar to a board installed at Churchill Downs, site of the Kentucky Derby.